Should guns be permitted at colleges and universities?

State Sen. Pam Roach is up to her shoot-from-the-hip ways again with a new measure The Associated Press says would prevent universities in the state from banning concealed weapons on campus.

Her logic – it would make campuses safer to have gun-toting students and faculty packing heat.

The measure “touch off spirited debate” Thursday at a Senate committee hearing, according to the AP report.

Roach, R-Auburn, introduced her proposal to counter a separate bill offered by Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, that would ban weapons at colleges that host high school students. Most universities now ban weapons on campus, but that is not a state law, the AP story notes.

While neither measure is expected to be brought to the floor for a vote this session, the issue certainly won’t go quietly into the night as was the case Thursday in the debate before the Senate Committee on Higher Education.

“When you talk about guns, people start to flip out,” Murray said. “We have a tragic history in this country with guns in high schools. We’re not infringing on the Second Amendment when we try to protect (students).”

But Roach declared, “Based on the policy of the last 30 years, it may be evident that this is a failed policy, there have been 38 college and school shootings since the prohibition of guns in schools was enacted. There were only two recorded during the 150 years preceding that prohibition.”

For more information, the bill banning weapons on community college campuses is SB 6841. The bill prohibiting universities from banning concealed weapons is SB 6860.